Secretary of state OKs ballot question for Cape voters on Pilgrim evacuation zone

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The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA

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Posted Aug. 14, 2014 at 10:00 PM

Posted Aug. 14, 2014 at 10:00 PM

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BOSTON – The secretary of state’s office on Tuesday approved a non-binding question asking voters on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket if the emergency planning zone for the Pilgrim nuclear power plant should be expanded to include their towns.

The anti-nuclear group Cape Downwinders delivered a petition containing more than 2,000 certified signatures seeking the referendum on Tuesday and the request was approved.

The question asks:

‘‘Shall the state senator from this district be instructed to vote in favor of legislation to expand the radiological Plume Exposure Emergency Planning Zone around the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, an approximately 10 mile-radius area, to include all of Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket counties?’’

Legislation to expand the zone has been introduced every year since 1988, but never passed both the House and the Senate in the same session.

This year’s version, which would have expanded the zone to 20 miles to include Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket counties, died in the Joint Committee on Public Health.